It is considered that high costs of care primarily stem from it being largely uncoordinated. In turn, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases increases the expenses incurred to deliver healthcare services to patients. Health information technology (IT) is expected to enable an organization to coordinate care better and reduce healthcare expenditures (Joshi, Ransom, Nash, & Ransom, 2014). As a manager of the care coordination department in a large clinic, I would suggest investing in health IT to improve the management of chronic diseases by the implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR).
The potential benefits of its adoption include the promotion of coordinated care between team members, provision of evidence-based clinical management, and the extension of time healthcare professionals spend with patients with chronic diseases.
Early detection of chronic conditions is crucial for better disease management and efficient allocation of healthcare resources. Chronic diseases will be identified using the disease registries, such as printed patient reports, that provide information on a specific condition and prompt healthcare professionals to perform health assessments. An EMR will be a structured database containing all the patient data needed for the detection of a chronic illness. The computer registry will focus on the relevant information and analyze it to propose differentiating diagnoses to physicians.
An EMR will contain the medical and treatment history of patients entered by nurses and physicians. Nurse care coordinators will have direct access to an EMR through an organization’s EMR system. To gain the needed information about a patient, they will need to log in via computers or tablet computers and print it. Medication adherence plays an important role in health care delivery by improving patient outcomes. Its great significance for patients with chronic conditions is explained by possible fatal consequences of non-adherence. The utilization of an EMR allows for identifying and addressing primary non-adherence in medical practice.
Reference
Joshi, M., Ransom, E. R., Nash, D. B., & Ransom, S. B. (Eds.). (2014). The healthcare quality book: Vision, strategy, and tools (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.